Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Alwyn Mellor (soprano), Anna Larsson (mezzo-soprano), Stuart Skelton (tenor), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (tenor), James Creswell (bass) & Sir Thomas Allen (speaker)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, Edward Gardner
Awards:
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Building a Library, March 2017, Also Recommended
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2016, Editor's Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2016
The hero is Edward Gardner, under whose wonderfully flexible beat this hyper-Romantic music positively breathes in long lyrical phrases and paragraphs. Nor are the excitements lacking: the coda...
Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Alwyn Mellor (soprano), Anna Larsson (mezzo-soprano), Stuart Skelton (tenor), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (tenor), James Creswell (bass) & Sir Thomas Allen (speaker)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir, Edward Gardner
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Building a Library, March 2017, Also Recommended
-
Gramophone Magazine, October 2016, Editor's Choice
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2016
The hero is Edward Gardner, under whose wonderfully flexible beat this hyper-Romantic music positively breathes in long lyrical phrases and paragraphs. Nor are the excitements lacking: the coda...
About
Recorded live on SACD in the sumptuous acoustic of Grieghallen in Bergen, this mind-blowing interpretation of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder involves 350 performers: large choral forces, six exceptional soloists, and the legendary Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra – extended for the occasion – all conducted by Edward Gardner.
Marking the pinnacle of the Orchestra’s 250th anniversary celebrations, the same forces offered two evening concerts that met with unanimous acclaim in the press, including a five-star review from The Daily Telegraph praising the ‘sweep of Gardner's conducting, by turns luminous and incisive’. It added, ‘He unleashed the piece’s volcanic passions while never becoming mired in its high-calorific density, and somehow avoided drowning the singers’, and also congratulated the ‘heroic’ Stuart Skelton, ‘warm’ Alwyn Mellor, ‘ethereal’ Anna Larsson, and ‘powerful’ Thomas Allen.
Contents and tracklist
- James Creswell (bass), Stuart Skelton (tenor), Alwyn Mellor (soprano), Anna Larsson (mezzo-soprano), Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (tenor), Thomas Allen (narrator)
- Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Choir of Collegium Musicum, Edvard Grieg Kor, Orphei Drängar, Royal Northern College of Music Choir
- Edward Gardner
- Recorded: 8-11 December 2015
- Recording Venue: Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway
Awards and reviews
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Gramophone MagazineOctober 2016Editor's Choice
-
Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2016
Christmas 2016
The hero is Edward Gardner, under whose wonderfully flexible beat this hyper-Romantic music positively breathes in long lyrical phrases and paragraphs. Nor are the excitements lacking: the coda to the Klaus episodes fizzes with crazy virtuosity and the final sunrise is as grandly summatory as any
2nd December 2016
There is an amplitude of tonal richness, against which Alwyn Mellor and Stuart Skelton sing on a heroic scale
October 2016
The playing of the Bergen Philharmonic is rich, seductive and sensuous...Gardner’s operatic experience means he’s alive to the lyricism and drama of the piece in equal measure: there’s ardent longing aplenty and a real willingness to explore the sheer gorgeousness of the score.
20th January 2017
A top class performance and magnificent recording of this vast piece.
23rd October 2016
Gardner’s grasp of scale and momentum is as strong as Stenz’s, and his cast is more balanced...Gardner has the thrillingly heroic Stuart Skelton in the work’s most prominent solo part, pouring out his love for Tove in ringing tones...The playing and singing of Gardner’s Bergen forces are as intoxicating as any I know on disc.
30th September 2016
although this account was recorded over four days, it rolls onwards with the dynamism of a single live performance...for luminous atmosphere and edge-of-the-seat excitement, Gardner’s Bergen forces offer something special.
